Sept. 2 (UPI) — Iran launched retaliatory strikes at U.S. bases throughout the Middle East on Wednesday, after the U.S. military killed at least five people and injured more than 60 others at a wedding in southern Iran a day prior.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement carried by its official Sepah News outlet that it had launched missile and drone strikes on U.S. bases in Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq and Kuwait. The extent of possible damage was unknown but both the Kuwait Army and the Bahrain Defense Force said they had come under attack.
The IRGC said the strikes were in response to U.S. strikes on Tuesday near the village of Kuhestak in Sirik County, Hormozgan province.
The Iranian Red Crescent said in a statement the four people, including a child, were killed and more than 50 others required were injured after shrapnel from a U.S. strike struck a residential building where a wedding was underway. Hormozgan’s deputy governor, Ahmad Nafisi, later said five people were killed and 68 injured, ISNA reported.
The IRGC described the deadly U.S. strike as “a malicious attack.”
“In a flagrant violation of human rights, the child-killing American military bombed a residential home in Sirik and drenched it in blood, turning the marriage celebration of a young and respected Sunni couple into mourning,” it said.
Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security commission of the Iranian parliament, said the attack was “the ultimate proof of the utter desperation of the fake defenders of human rights.”
“Make no mistake: these crimes will not go unpunished,” he said online. “Nothing will protect them from the crushing will of Iran’s Armed Forces.”
The IRGC said it struck “the headquarters and residence of the American commander at Ali Al Salem Air Base,” in Kuwait, claiming to have killed U.S. personnel, though UPI could not independently verify the claim.
The Kuwait Army said earlier that its air defenses were “confronting hostile missile and drone attacks” from Iran.
The Jordan Armed Forces said in a statement of the 13 ballistic missiles Iran fired that entered its airspace, 10 were destroyed and three fell in remote areas.
The United States on Tuesday struck IRGC targets in Iran as tensions mounted over control of the Strait of Hormuz.
There was a nearly monthlong pause in U.S. attacks on Iran until Sunday, when U.S. Central Command attacked launchers on Larak Island in the strait.
CENTCOM said Tuesday that its strikes “follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and American service members deployed to the region.”
While the war began in late February with the United States seeking to prevent Iran from securing a nuclear weapon and to encourage regime change, the battle has for months been focused on the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has been restricting access to with drones, missiles and artillery.
The Trump administration is seeking to regain freedom of navigation through the vital energy route.
President Donald Trump has for months repeatedly stated that the U.S. military controls the strait, boasting that it is U.S. territory on his Truth Social media platform, despite only a trickle of the maritime traffic that once transiting the route now getting through.
Trump on his Truth Social media platform said he was not trying to force Iran to the negotiating table for talks on an agreement, seemingly to end the war, saying “I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait.”
“When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?” he asked.